If you like titles, then I suppose
this would be as good a title as any. Vain Worship and Blessed
Worship. Vain Worship and Blessed Worship. And let's ask the Lord to make
this blessed worship. Our God, we've met in the name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to worship you. It is written through him, do
you believe in God? And our Father, it's only through
the Lord Jesus that we are able to believe in you. There is no
way to you but by your Son, the Lord Jesus. And so through Him
we come to you and by Him we trust in you. By seeing Him we
see you. Our Lord Jesus, be the deliverer
that comes to Zion this day and delivers us. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen. Now, the Jewish nation was a
very blessed nation. Certainly, maybe we should better
say privileged. I generally reserved blessed,
or the word blessed, for those good things from God which do
result in salvation. But the Jews were given a lot
of privileges. They didn't always have the grace
to turn those privileges into blessings, but they certainly
had privileges. Israel arose from Abraham, the
man of faith. Israel had a goodly heritage.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in her lineage was a long line of people
that believed God. And so far as we know, all the
prophets of that day came from Israel and spoke in Israel. Now, if you wanted to kind of
compare that to today, or relate that to your own experience,
think of how blessed or how privileged you would be to live in the place
where God sent all of his prophets, where every preacher of the gospel
existed. You know, there are places in
this world, there is no testimony of the gospel, none. Aren't you
glad you don't live there? I'm sure glad I live somewhere.
for the gospel can be heard. And so far as we know, in the
times of the Old Covenant, the only place where there were to
be found prophets, preachers of the truth, was in Israel.
And to Israel was given the oracles of God, the very scriptures.
These Old Testament scriptures, or what we refer to as the Old
Testament scriptures, they were all given to men in Israel. And only in Israel would they
be found. I imagine maybe a few scrolls
got here and there, particularly when the Jews got scattered abroad.
But the scriptures got scattered abroad only because the Jews
took them along with them. But you can pretty well count on
it that if you wanted to find out anything about the truth
of God, if you wanted to learn anything of the God who made
the heavens and the earth, you had to be in Israel. And even
in her weekly and yearly calendars were to be found constant reminders
of the worship of God. I mean, they had feast days,
they had sacrifices to observe, they had their weekly Sabbath
day, had all these things to continually remind them who they
were and to whom they owed all of their benefits. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless his holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Now, in that scripture, if there's
anything I learn, it's this. That we are prone to forget the
Lord's benefits. The benefits of being his people.
Else we would not have to have a scripture such as that psalm
to remind us not to forget. I was at the eye doctor the other
day. She said I could come in Thursday
night at 7 o'clock. They'd have my glasses, new glasses
ready for me. I'm finally going to get rid
of these glasses with a big scratch in them. And they had my new glasses ready
for me. And so we made the appointment. She said, should I write that
down on a note? I said, that'll be fine, but
then you're going to have to write me a note to remind me to read the
note that reminds me about, you know, I'm forgetful that way.
I told her, I said, the better thing is to just call my wife and tell
her I've got an appointment on Thursday night. But we're prone
to forget. And it's not that we don't appreciate the blessings.
It's just that we're scatterbrained to a greater or lesser degree.
And there are things that do demand our attention and it's
easy to get wrapped up in them to where you don't think about
the more important things. But Israel had in her weekly
calendar and her yearly calendar constant reminders of the worship
of God. But the Jews themselves, by nature,
were no better than the Gentiles that surrounded them. Now that
was a hard lesson for them to learn, particularly in the New
Testament. When Paul went out and said, there is no difference,
for all have seen it. And that all, he meant Jew and
Gentile alike, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption
of His in Christ. And it was tough for the Jew
to come to terms with the fact that he was just as sinful as
his Gentile neighbor and just as much in need of the justified,
redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that his only way
of acceptance with God was through the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
That was tough for them to come to terms with. But it was the
truth of it and they proved it throughout their history. Now
you can full well understand why the Philistines would be
idolaters. The truth was never taken to
them. You can understand why the Babylonians and the Assyrians
and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans, why they fell
down and worshipped four-footed beasts and creepy crawly things
and planets and stuff. You can understand that. They
never had the truth told to them. And yet here's Israel with all
of her privileges and she still raises up idols to Baal. She
still began to sacrifice her children to Ashtoreth and to
Molech. In fact, if you really want to
think about it, the Jews were worse than their neighbors, because
they committed all of their sins and all of their idolatries with
the truth all around them. You know, I think sometimes about
the churches that call themselves Christian, and they got a Bible
in their hand, and they got the symbols of Christianity all around
them, and they live in a nation, these American churches, live
in a nation where they're free to worship And yet, if you look
very deeply at what they're doing, there's just no difference between
that and the most pagan forms of religion you want to run into
anywhere. They just use different names. And then here's you and me. We
say, and I think rightly so, we say we're preaching the gospel
in truth. that we do believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, and yet do we not find in ourselves that same tendency
to idolatry, the idolatry of covetousness, the idolatry of
keeping up appearances, the idolatry of self-righteousness. Now, here in Isaiah 58, Says that the Jews indicate the
Jews were scarcely better or really not any better at all
than the people around them. But they were totally unaware
of it. Look at verse 1. Shout it aloud. Do not hold back. Raise
your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion. and to the house of Jacob their
sins for day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know
my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and has
not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them. We have fasted, they
say, and have you not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves
and you have not noticed? And so here is this nation of
Israel who was really no better than the people around them,
and they didn't even know it. They thought they were doing
well. In fact, they thought they were doing so well, they found
fault with God. They said, here they said, we
fasted, and you have not seen it. We've humbled ourselves,
and you didn't take notice. You know, on the one hand, if
we worship correctly, worship in the proper spirit, in the
proper way, we should expect that God would notice, because
he's called on us to do that. Our Lord said to that woman at
the well, the time is coming, and now he is, when the Father
will be worshipped in spirit and truth. They that worship
Him will worship Him in spirit and truth for the Father desires
such to worship Him. And when we read that, I think
we can have every expectation that if we worship Him in spirit
and truth, as if we worship Him from our hearts, sincerely, He
will delight in that worship, He will take notice of it, and
we will find a blessedness in it. And here's what's happening.
These people are saying, Didn't we do that? And we aren't getting
any good out of it. Remember, Isaiah was prophesying
to them of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. And things already,
I guess, weren't going well. And they said, well, we humbled
ourselves. We had a fast. They sought the
Lord in the observances of the law. They kept their fasts. And
they wondered why God didn't take notice. So God sent a prophet
to them to declare to the people their rebellion. In Isaiah chapter
6, when God appeared to Isaiah, and when Isaiah saw the Lord,
he said, Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among
a people of unclean lips. I can't speak. I can't talk. I dare not utter the things of
God. I wish we had some preachers
like that. I wish I was more like that. That actually, from
a sense of own unworthiness, we feared to speak of the things
of God. But that's the position Isaiah
was in. And so the Lord touched his lips.
And he said, I've purified you. I've sanctified you to be a mouthpiece
for me. And Isaiah said, well then what
shall I say? What shall I tell this people?
He says, you tell them this, all flesh is grass. All flesh is like the flower
of the field. The grass withers and the flower
fades away, but the glory of the Lord endures forever. I like that message really. You
know why I like that message? Because I keep trying to keep
this grass from withering. And I keep trying to make this
flower look pretty. It's kind of nice to know that it's a waste
of time. You can just go ahead and give up on it. And consume your
thoughts with the glory of the Lord that endures forever. Right
there at the beginning, Isaiah was given his message. All flesh
is grass, just to be gathered up and burned. And the flower
of the field, a man's like the flower of the field, he's bored,
he lives for a little while, and while he's alive, maybe some
people take notice, his mama thinks he's the best little boy
there ever was, or he's some kind of civic leader, or he's
known for his charitable works, and his flower is out there in
full bloom, and all people look at him and think he's great,
but what happens? He gets old, the flower fades, begins to wither,
and finally it's just an old, dry mess. It's nothing, and that's
all you and I are headed for. And I look at this congregation
this morning, and most of us are on the fading side of flowerhood. There's a few young enough that
there might be a few blossoms left, but most of us, we're on
the fading side, aren't we? And anybody that lives long enough
ends up on the fading side. There is nothing good about the
flesh, nothing lasting. And that was the problem with
the Jews and their worship. It had become nothing but flesh. They said, we fasted and the
Lord said, okay, you did. But look here, it says, well,
I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm going to get it disorganized
if I don't follow these pretty good. The problem here was twofold. First of all, their problem began
in the heart. And the reason the problem begins
in the heart is because their worship didn't begin in the heart.
Their worship consisted of outward appearances. The Apostle Paul
speaks of this same thing. He says that a time would come
when people would have a form of godliness. but deny the power
of it. You know, we do our best to get
rid of forms. We don't want to be a formal
religion. We kind of have a regular recipe, so to speak, for our
worship services, but that's just more habit than anything.
But you and I understand that our worship before God The value
of it does not consist in its forms, whether we sing three
hymns or four, whether we stand or sit while we sing. Whether
we wear a suit or wear casual clothes or wear jeans, we realize
these are not the forms or these are not the real things of religion.
Whether we meet on a Sunday or, for that matter, if we met every
Tuesday, we meet on Sunday because basically even our culture will
recognize that Sunday has been set aside so that people can
worship. And so, and that's what the early apostles evidently
did, was meet on the first day of the week, but there's no command
in the scriptures that says that's the day of the week you gotta
meet. We do as much as we can, don't
we, to shed those fleshly forms that our worship might truly
be from the heart. But these Jews, that covenant
was given to them and it was full of forms, and here's what
happened. Do you remember where in one
of the scriptures it says, may their table become a snare and
a trap to them? How so? Because they thought
that by going through the forms they were actually worshipping. And therefore they didn't have
to have any heart in what they were doing. They didn't have
to really pay any attention to it. You can get to where you're
just going through the paces. Have you ever had to memorize
a speech that you give over and over and over again? I thank
those ladies. I've been flying a little bit in the last year,
you know, and those women get up there. Well, there are men
doing it now, but the flight attendants, you know. And they've got to
go through that speech, but they're little. And you know good and well they're
paying absolutely no attention to what they're saying, because
they've done it a thousand times. And we can do that in religion.
We've been through this a thousand times. And we can go through
it, and it's just like when you stand at a job and you just do
some repetitive work that you've done so many times, you don't
even have to consciously pay attention to what you're doing.
You just keep doing it. You can carry on a conversation,
you do this. And we can do that in worship. In fact, in one place,
and I can't remember just where it is, But in scripture it says
that the Word of God will be line upon line and precept upon
precept. And that was taken up by many
to say, yes, God was going to just teach them like children,
line upon line and precept upon precept. It's not what the Lord
was telling them. He said, the Word of God will be come to you.
And if I've got it right now, in Hebrew, it comes out, kozlekav
sablashav. He says it's going to become
nothing but gibberish to you. You will have heard it so long
you'll just be reciting your lines and going through your
precepts and it'll mean nothing at all. It'll be like reciting
the Pledge of Allegiance. You can stand there and do it
and meanwhile run calculations in your head and it means nothing. And these people were going through
all their forms and all their rituals and it meant nothing
to them because it never pierced their heart. And since it was worship in the
flesh, it was ruled by the flesh. Look at the last part of chapter,
or excuse me, of verse three. The Lord says, yet on the day
of your fasting, you do as you please. All worship becomes a matter
of what pleases men. That's why I'm in so many churches
these days are in an uproar about whether to have contemporary
or traditional services. as though that's the issue. Everybody
wants what they please. Now, you all know me. I assume
you know me well enough. I like all kinds of music and
I wouldn't mind having electric guitars and all that kind of
stuff. I can deal with it. Not everybody can. But it doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter whether you
sing with a pipe organ, a guitar, or nothing at all. It doesn't
matter whether you sing songs that make you want to sway a
little bit or sing songs that make you want to stand up like
you're at attention. That's got nothing to do with
it. But churches are constantly having
to figure out what's going to please the people. That doesn't
matter. I know this. I'm convinced of
it. If you do what pleases God in
worship, it will please the sheep of God. That's just so. That's why there's no use polling
the people about matters of worship. You follow in those things that
God says. They did what pleased them while
looking pious. They exploited their workers.
Now, here he was a, you know, Jewish society was supposed to
be ruled according to the law and according to the way they
worshiped God. And notice what he says here. In the last part
of verse three, yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you
please and exploit all your workers. What does he mean there? Well,
the boss. He said, well, I better do some
fasting. I want everybody to understand
what a pious and holy man I am. And so he wouldn't eat anything
that day, and he would make his face look disfigured like he
was really suffering and everything. Meanwhile, everybody that worked
for him still had to go out and do all their labors. They couldn't
have a fast to the Lord if they wanted to. Meanwhile, and also
while he's fasting and out there working, he's not paying them
what they're worth. And even though he doesn't eat
for one day, he can feast every other day of the year if he wants.
You know, when a man truly worships God, it'll affect the way he
treats others. Now, we can go around and we
can make up rules about how we ought to treat each other, but
I also know this, a man with a heart towards God will also
have a heart towards the people he deals with. I can't remember which old-time
preacher it was, but he made this statement. He said, if I
can figure it out just like this, he said, I wouldn't give you
a nickel for a man's profession if his dog couldn't tell. And
that's just so. I realize the process conversion
can take a little while longer in some than others, but the
love of God shed abroad in the heart ought to mean that the
love of us sheds abroad out of our hearts toward our neighbor.
One thing that really irritates me in this world, and maybe irritates
you too, is when these vastly wealthy people, I mean they are
just obscenely wealthy, and so they endow something with a million
bucks. Of course they left themselves
several billion. But they give a million dollars and everybody
just praises and I'm thinking, you know what might be a nice
thing to do? Why don't you give her one or two dollar an hour
raise for the people that work for you? Instead of giving a
big charity or putting up a building, so-and-so foundation with your
name on it, why not pay the folks that work for you? They could
use it. I remember reading Spurgeon,
and I'm not old enough to have heard him, but I read him one
time, and he was talking about Christmas. And he made this statement,
and I thought, what a great statement to make. He said, you masters,
and by that he meant employers. He says, give your people the
day off with pay. He said, it's not right that
they should either feast or fast. He said, you'll have your enjoyments,
let them have theirs too. And that's what he's saying here.
He says, you fasted, but the whole time you were exploiting
your people and making them work so that you have idle time on
your hands to not eat and look like you're religious. And then
your fasting ends in quarreling and strife and striking each
other with wicked fists. You cannot do as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high. You cannot worship in
the flesh. and expect that God, who is Spirit,
is going to hear you. He says, Is this the kind of
fast I have chosen? Only a day for a man to humble
himself, that is, put on airs of humility? Is it only for one
bowing one's head like a reed, and for lying on sackcloth and
ashes? So is that the kind of feast
I appointed? Is that what you call a fast,
a day, acceptable to the Lord? Now notice verse 6. And I love
this, and I'll bet you do too. Is not this the kind of fasting
I have chosen? To loose the chains of injustice
and wickedness. Set people free. To untie the
cords of the yoke. To set the oppressed free and
break every yoke. No, I've quit reading here. I'm commenting. But it's as if
the Lord says, you fast and you make your workers work. You take
a day off to serve the Lord and you make your people go back
out to the fields and work and you don't pay them enough. Is
not a fast the purpose of releasing the oppressed and breaking the
yoke? Is it not to share your food
with the hungry? Now that sounds interesting.
A fast to share your food? Well, He doesn't just want you
to quit eating on a fast. He wants you to take the food
you didn't eat and give it to somebody who may have been kind
of halfway fasting for the last bit because they don't have any
money. Now there's a fast. to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the
naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh
and blood. These fasts were designed to
provide an opportunity for man not to serve himself, but to
serve others, and all they did was serve their own self-righteous
interests. And when you read this, when
you hear me read it, and of course he's spoken here of the things
they weren't doing, but who do you know that does this? There's
one who really did do that, who loosed the chains of wickedness
and untied the cords of the yoke, who set the oppressed free and
broke every yoke, who shared his food with the hungry, to
provide shelter for the poor wanderer, clothing to the naked,
and drew to himself all his flesh and blood. And you know who that
is. You know there's only one who
has ever completely and perfectly worshipped the Lord. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way we come close
to any kind of perfection in worshiping God is when we worship
God through Christ. When we come to Christ. But think
of it now. Were you not bound in chains
of wickedness? And did not the Lord come and
set you free? Were you not oppressed by the
law and by guilt? And yet the Lord came and broke
that yoke of your burden and set you free? Did you not hunger
and thirst for righteousness only to find the Lord Jesus come
and take his broken body and his shed blood and give you the
best food of all? Did he not find you naked in
the shamefulness of your sins and clothe you in his glorious
righteousness? And when you came to him, did
he not throw wide his arms and draw you to himself and call
you his brother? Or as Hebrews says, the Lord
Jesus comes before the Father and says, I and the children
you've given me. Oh, we are in our flesh a ragtag
group, a motley crew, and yet the Lord owns us every one and
has been good to us. And the Lord says of the Jews,
if they would do this, if they would simply treat their brothers
and sisters this way, then your light will break forth like the
dawn and your healing will quickly appear. Now let me say this,
you know, we don't want to spiritualize everything to the point that
we don't take some very practical word from this. The fact is,
if we try to worship Christ while looking at our neighbor with
a jaundiced eye, or while not trying to relieve the oppressed
and to help others, if we do that, our worship will get shut
up too. We can have our doctrine just
straight as an arrow. I believe that Rolf Bonner used
to say that some people are so orthodox, they're straight as
a rifle barrel and just as empty. And that's the way it gets sometimes.
He says, if you will do this, if you will take the truth that
you believe, and rejoice in the gospel which has brought such
grace to you, and in turn show that selfsame grace to everyone
else, then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your
healing will quickly appear, the healing of your soul, the
restoration of the inward man. Then your righteousness will
go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear
guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer. You will
cry for help, but He will say, Here am I. Now sometimes we cry
out and we think the Lord didn't answer, and there may be a lot
of reasons. My mother used to tell us in
Bible classes, she'd say, When you pray, the Lord gives one
of three answers. He says yes, no, or later. And sometimes the later just
sounds like silence. And sometimes, even though the
Lord intends to deliver, He doesn't intend to deliver right then
because the situation hasn't gotten hard enough that once
He delivers you, you will appreciate Him like you ought to. But this
you can be sure of, that he who follows the Lord and acts as
the Lord did when He calls, the Lord will answer him and say,
Here am I. But he who shuts up a heart of
mercy to the oppressed can hardly expect that the God of all mercy
will come to him. Did not our Lord say, if you
do not forgive the sins of others, neither will your Father which
is in heaven forgive you? Okay, there's a couple of ifs
here in the rest of the chapter, and we'll just lightly glance
over them. Beginning in the last part of
verse 9, if you do away with the yoke of oppression, with
a pointing finger and malicious talk. And if you spend yourselves
in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then
your light will rise in the darkness and your light will become like
the noonday. The Lord will guide you always.
He will satisfy your need in the sun-scorched land and will
strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered
garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will
rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called Repairer of
broken walls, Restorer of streets with dwellings." Now once again,
let us note that there's only one person who's really done
this perfectly, and that's the Lord Jesus. And you read through
there, and if you'll read that with an eye for Christ, it's
just going to break your heart in thankfulness, because He did
away with the yoke of our oppression. And he didn't point the finger
and have malicious talk against us, but rather he was more of
an inviting finger and tender talk. And he spent himself in
our behalf, and he satisfied our needs. But let us also realize
that in the ministry of the gospel, this is exactly what we're supposed
to be doing. We're supposed to be taking that
message and we're also supposed to have that attitude which was
in Christ Jesus. Paul said, let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus. Oh, to have the mind of
Christ. That we would do away with the
yoke of oppression. Do you realize that there are
a lot of people right here in Rock Valley living under a yoke
of religious oppression? They are in bondage. Constantly
being accused by the pointing finger of false prophets and
the malicious talk of gossipy religionists. Everywhere they
turn, they're getting put down. And we'll have to say this, maybe
a lot or even all that's said about them is true. It may. That's just a center over there.
Okay. It's true. But you know something? As true as it may be, we've got
no right to be the one oppressing. And we've got no right to be
the one pointing and maliciously talking about it. Now there is
a time, particularly when it comes to the leadership in religion
that points that that's wrong, what they're preaching is wrong.
In fact, I'm doing some of that kind of right now. These leaders,
these ones that rule people by oppression, They are wrong, and
they will be condemned for what they do. But you know what I
hope for them? I wish God would save them. Boy, that'd fix it.
Because if all that happens is God kills them, there'll be another
one raised up right in their place. If God were to save one of them,
they're going to be around for a while yet, you know. Maybe
they'll have some good. And then quit pointing that finger. I
catch myself doing it. I try not to do it, but it's
so much a part of it. You start preaching, you do this. Oh my. If you spend yourselves on behalf
of the hungry, don't you just wish, let me ask
you this, don't you wish that you could just forget about doing
everything else and be a gospel help to everybody you meet? Do
you wish you could do that? I know that practically speaking
we can't do that and the Lord has not ordained that we do that.
We've got to go to our jobs and everything. But I'll tell you
what happens, we become real greedy with the time that we
do have at our disposal and the resources we do have at our disposal. Spend yourselves in behalf of
those that hunger and thirst after righteousness and satisfy
the needs of the oppressed. Seek out those especially among
your brethren in the Lord. who are either under great burden
or maybe under a great sense of failure and guilt and relief. You know, guilt is
a terrible burden to carry around. And one of the reasons we end
up carrying it around so much is we won't be honest with other
people. We're just gonna hide our sin, you know, and that means
we gotta carry it around. Nobody can help us with it. But if you know that someone's
lying under a burden of guilt, you can go over to them and say,
you know, brother, I don't know what you did and
I don't even have to know. But I can tell you, you're carrying
around a really bad burden here. Why don't you just let go of
that thing? The Lord put it away. Why are you carrying it around?
And if you feel like that you're not worthy to walk around the
rest of us, well, just join the club. We're all unworthy. And we aren't pointing any fingers
at you. And we're not talking maliciously behind your back.
Our only hope is that the Lord will soon give you relief. Because
what a miserable mess to carry guilt. Somebody going around
with just a burden on their back, a load of circumstances they
can't bear. Well, brother, is there anything
I can do to help out? Do you ever actually stop and
consciously think, look around, is there somebody I can help? He says, And your light will
rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
Our Lord says, Come to me, all you that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. And then he goes, Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest. What does
he mean by that? He said, do like I do. When two animals are yoked together,
they're walking in the same direction, walking in the same place. And
we don't find rest in serving ourselves, we find rest in serving
others for Christ's sake. Well, I better move on to the
other if. Verse 13. If you keep your feet from breaking
the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if
you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as
you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in
the Lord. And I will cause you to ride
on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of
your father Jacob, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now,
you know as well as I do that since the Lord Jesus Christ came,
excuse me, since the Lord Jesus Christ came, said it is finished,
and entered his rest, his Sabbath, there has been no Sabbath day.
It says Jesus Christ is the end of the law, he's the goal of
the law, he's what the law was pointing to, he is the fulfillment
of it, and when he fulfilled it, all of it was set aside. And those Sabbath day observances
are not binding upon us. But brethren, I want you to stop
and think of this too. They weren't so bad. Why in the world did anybody
find fault with a day off? Isn't that something how people
can get so wrapped up in going through their day-to-day things
they don't even want to stop for one day, take some time to
worship God, sit around and reflect on Him, and enjoy fellowship
with one another in Christ. Now, I don't want us to go back
to a Sabbath day. I would never encourage that. If the Lord puts
a thing away, then it's put away. And as Brother Bruce Crabtree
pointed out, the reason that God put aside the seventh day
or the Sabbath days, He found a better day, the day of grace
in Christ Jesus. What is our Sabbath? Well, the
better question is, who is our Sabbath? And we've got to apply
this not as to a day on the week or day in the week, but to our
Lord Jesus Christ. If you keep your feet from breaking
the Sabbath, now, what does he mean by that? If you rest in
Christ and trust Him for all things,
And don't try doing as you please on a holy day. Don't try to twist
this gospel into what pleases you. Oh, I tell you, believers,
I mean real, honest-to-God believers, are foolish enough to keep trying
to bring this works thing back into this gospel of grace. And
if they can't sneak it in the front door, they're going to
try to bring it in the back door. And if they can't do that, they're
going to see if there's an open window somewhere and sneak in
a little bit of works so that they can look better than the
brother that's sitting next to them in the pew. All this wretched
self-righteousness. And the thing is, when we break
the Sabbath that way, when we try to work to be better than
other people, and to, you know, kind of like a bunch of kids
trying to gain the affection of their parents by being better
than their brothers and sisters. See, Mommy and Daddy, I'm better
than so-and-so. He was naughty today. I was good. And when we're
doing that, we're breaking God's holy Sabbath. We're doing what
we want to do instead of what He said to do, which is simply
trust Him and approach Him as children. Fully accepting, not
because of what we've done, but because we're part of His family. If you call the Sabbath a delight.
I know if I had lived in that day, I think if even for fleshly
reasons, I would have thought the Sabbath was a great day.
Sleep in a little bit, you know. Take some rest from my labors.
I wouldn't have to feel bad because my neighbor's out mowing his
grass, making his yard look better than mine. Whatever it was when
you woke up is going to be that way all day long. But as much as I delight, or
would have delighted in such a Sabbath, I delight even more
in this spiritual Sabbath of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
from the moment I believe in him, throughout eternity, is
one unending Sabbath of rest. I don't have to do one thing
to gain God's favor. I don't have to lift the smallest
finger to become a recipient of all his blessings. Like that prodigal that came
home, We are tempted to think that all that God will accept
us back as is a servant, you know. No, a son. A son with a new robe and new
shoes and a ring on a finger and a key to the front door and
a combination to the family safe. Oh, God's Sabbath is glorious.
If you call the Sabbath a delight, You know, you go out preaching
God's Sabbath in Christ, you'll find out not everybody's delighted
with it. Not everybody thinks that salvation
by grace and grace alone is a good idea because it kind of makes
it so they can't glory in themselves any. If you honor it by not going
your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
worthless, useless controversies, or probably the most idle words
of all, declarations of all you've done for Jesus. I remember testimony
services when I was a kid. I had them on the watch night
service, you know, it was on the night of December 31st, going
to ring in the new year, and we'd have songs, they'd usually
have a film, you know, and some special choir numbers and all
that. We'd have a real good time. Then they'd open it up for testimonies. And I don't think there's anything
wrong with opening up for testimonies. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, give them an opportunity. But I'll tell you what, invariably
these testimony services end up a testimony of what they've
done for Jesus over the last year. They'd always start it
like the Pharisees do. I thank God that I was able to
lead 25 people to the Lord. They say, well, I did 30. They
wouldn't say it just that way, but you know, you could tell
what was going on. Big brag session. Idle words,
useless words. It says, you'll do away with
this if you'll rest in Christ. and let your neighbor rest in
Christ. Then you will find your joy in
the Lord. I suspect that one of the reasons
for the Sabbath day law was this. For six days they worked, and
you know, you generally put your joy where your work is. It says
where your treasure is, where your efforts are, there will
your heart be also. And therefore the Lord would make them sit
still for one day. You just don't do anything. You
go to synagogue and worship there and then you come home. You know,
and you only do those things which are absolutely necessary
because the, almost said the pigs need food, but not in Israel.
They didn't need food. The sheep, the sheep needed some
provender, needed some food. You did that, those words of
mercy, but otherwise you were to relax your body and your mind
to give yourselves an opportunity to delight in the Lord and to
enjoy Him. And He says, if you'll do these
things, then you will find joy in the Lord. And I will cause
you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the
inheritance of your father Jacob. vain and useless worship we can
get involved in, as we try to do those things that please us,
as we try to advance our own righteousness and our own glory,
and as we forget to be kind and to express to others those very
same characteristics God expressed towards us, and when we forget
to just rest, just rest in Christ. But oh, how blessed it is in
those times When our mind is able to pierce through the fog
of our flesh, and see our Lord Jesus and all that He's done,
and to just completely rest in that. And I can tell you from
my own experience, when those times come, there is no fear
in the heart, no trouble in the soul, no temptation. The flesh
is utterly shut up. You can do what you want, try
to bind the flesh. He can always scream and yell. But I tell you,
the gospel can shut the flesh up, at least for a little while.
May God grant us such worship as that. Lord Jesus, oh, fill
our hearts with the fragrance of your person. And as we breathe in that glorious
fragrance, May we breathe it back out to those around us. Lord, may we learn to release
the oppressed, to cut the yoke of bondage, to be kind and considerate,
and most of all to declare that message which truly releases
the oppressed and breaks the yoke. May we learn to rest. While we point out to others
that their Sabbath-keeping is not according to the Scriptures,
may we be as careful to keep God's true Sabbath in Jesus Christ. Grant us rest, Lord, in the name
we pray. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.